County properties owned by PA Cyber sold

November 18, 2012

LISBON - Three Columbiana County properties owned by a company swept up in a federal probe involving the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School were sold for a combined $500,000.

The properties - owned by Palatine Development LLC - include two parcels on Calcutta-Smith Ferry Road in St. Clair Township that were searched in July by the FBI and IRS agents as part of a federal grand jury investigation. The probe is believed to be of former or current PA Cyber officials and not the school itself, according to stories published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The third parcel is an office building in downtown East Liverpool, between Washington Street and Broadway, which listed Lincoln Interactive and the National Network of Digital Schools as having offices there. The building was previously occupied by the former Caballi Jewelry & Gift shop.

The buyer in each case was JP Ohio Real Estate LLC, whose agent is listed as local businessman James Pastore Jr., 11988 state Route 45, Lisbon. Articles of incorporation for JP Ohio were filed about a month ago.

The properties on Calcutta-Smith Ferry Road are a 16-acre parcel that includes a home and a 2-acre parcel containing a commercial building used for classrooms and offices, according to the county auditor's office, where the transaction was recorded. The sale price was a combined $400,000.

The East Liverpool office building sold for $100,000.

According to Post-Gazette stories, Palatine was created by Brett Geibel, the former PA Cyber technology director, who left to become senior vice president for National Network Digital Schools (NNDS), which provides management and curriculum services to PA Cyber.

Palatine's property in St. Clair Township was rented to NNDS and Avanti Management Group, an educational consulting firm Geibel helped found that provided services to NNDS.

Palatine was in the news again last month when the Post-Gazette reported the company purchased the Florida condominium of PA Cyber founder and former CEO Nick Trombetta for $10. Trombetta, who resigned in June, purchased the condo in April 2011 for $933,000 and sold it to Palatine in December.